Quotes from Uncle Tom’s Cabin

17 notable lines from Harriet Beecher Stowe · 1852

So this is the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war.

Abraham Lincoln to Stowe (apocryphal)

  1. I spect I grow'd. Don't think nobody never made me.

    Topsy, Ch. 20

  2. No! no! no! my soul an't yours, Mas'r! You haven't bought it,—ye can't buy it! It's been bought and paid for, by one that is able to keep it;—no matter, no matter, you can't harm me!

    Tom to Simon Legree, Ch. 40

  3. Ye poor miserable critter! there ain't no more ye can do! I forgive ye, with all my soul!

    Tom, dying, to his attackers, Ch. 40

  4. I'd rather be sent to the bottom of the Mississippi than be sold from my wife and children.

    Eliza, Chapter 7

  5. O! love,—joy,—peace!

    Little Eva's last words, Ch. 26

  6. We don't own your laws; we don't own your country; we stand here as free, under God's sky, as you are; and, by the great God that made us, we'll fight for our liberty till we die.

    George Harris, Ch. 17

  7. There is one thing that every individual can do,—they can see to it that they feel right.

    Narrator, Concluding Remarks

  8. I'll fight for my liberty to the last breath I breathe. You say your fathers did it; if it was right for them, it is right for me!

    George Harris, Ch. 11

  9. Treat 'em like dogs, and you'll have dogs' works and dogs' actions. Treat 'em like men, and you'll have men's works.

    A Kentucky drover, Ch. 11

  10. I would die for them, Tom, if I could.

    Little Eva St. Clare, Ch. 24

  11. It's a shameful, wicked, abominable law, and I'll break it, for one, the first time I get a chance.

    Mrs. Bird to her senator husband, Ch. 9

  12. This cursed business, accursed of God and man, what is it? Strip it of all its ornament, run it down to the root and nucleus of the whole, and what is it?

    Augustine St. Clare, Ch. 19

  13. The longest way must have its close — the gloomiest night will wear on to a morning.

    Narrator, Chapter 43

  14. The longest way must have its close,—the gloomiest night will wear on to a morning.

    Narrator, Ch. 38

  15. I am braver than I was, because I have lost all; and he who has nothing to lose can afford all risks.

    Augustine St. Clare, Ch. 28

  16. What man has nerve to do, man has not nerve to hear.

    Narrator, Ch. 40